AIR TRANSPORT

Waipa Post, Volume 32, Issue 1787, 27 July 1926, Page 6

AIR TRANSPORT

FUTURE DEVELOPMENT.

IMPORTANT MAIL SERVICES. The future development of commercial mail transport cannot be other than highly speculative, but as a result of the experience gained in the last few years it is clear that for certain services, such as mail carrying, no nation can afford to disregard its possibilities. It is unnecessary to emphasise the special importance of the problem) in the case of the British Empire, (the constituent units of which are so widely scattered, and it is somewhat regrettable that, as regards thiis aspect of aviation, we do not occupy the pos/tion, as compared with other nations, that might have been expected to result from our admitted supremacy in fighting and reconnoitring craft in the war.

Our present position wa s Surveyed toy Air Vice-Marshal Sir W. Sefton ißrancker, in delivering the fifth Gustave Canet lecture before the Junior Institution "of Engineers on 30tlh April and a few figures quoted from his address will serve to illustrate the present position.

In 1924 a . single national company Imperial Airways, was established in England. This company and, its predecessors have carried among them over '70,000 passengers across" th« Channel, and have flown nearly 4,750,000 miles in all. The total mileage flown per annum increased from 104,000 in 1919 to 943,000 in 1923, the figures for 1924 and 1925 being respectively 936,000 and 526.000 miles. A regular service is maintained to Amsterdam, where it connects with the Swedish line to Malmo, and with the German line to Berlin. A regular service is also maintained to Cologne, connecting with the German line to Munich., and through Paris to Basle and Zurich. Amongst our overseas dominions, Australia alone has developed air transport seriously. Turning now to other nations, the French have four main services, namely, Paris to London, Paris to Amsterdam, Paris to Warsaw, and Toulouse to Dakar. The total mileage flown between 1919 and, 1925 was approximately 11,250,000, the figures for 1925 being 2,945,555 miles. The Germans have a comprehensive syslcem of internal lines, with teervices radiating to Amsterdam, Finland, and Moscow. The mileage flown in the years 1919, 1920, and 1925 are not known, but between 1921 and 1924 the total was 3,272,700 miles, and for 1924 alone was 1,151,000 miles. In addition to these countries, a further considerable total is made up from services operated in tlbe United States, Holland,' Belgium, Sweden, and other countries, and during the last year 1.4,382,000 mile's were flown in all, over organised air routes, totalling 31,000 miles in length.